My Beloved Brother
by betsy-malfoy
Summary: Seimei's treason had broken Ritsuka's heart.


Seimei's treason had broken Ritsuka's heart. Moreover, Ritsuka was stricken by the borderless impudence and unusual luckiness which Seimei showed when striving to his goals. Seimei lived as if the whole world was revolving around him, and the world bowed in an obedient agreement with such an attitude. It was one of the reasons why Ritsuka decided not to give Soubi back. By all means necessary.

At the very moment he came to this decision, Ritsuka felt calm and confident. Seimei would finally understand that sometimes his wishes remained ungranted. The boy even hoped that Seimei would reign in his appetites and become more modest. Ritsuka didn't have a bit of doubt in his ability to accomplish this goal, since any problem had to have a solution.

Ritsuka gave up the idea to run away with Soubi as soon as it came to his mind. He could imagine the pandemonium he would cause by leaving. He didn't have any direct influence on Seimei but words, and Seimei was no longer a little boy which could be rebuked for his misdeeds. It was impossible to declare war on him because he was supported by strong allies. And who could support Ritsuka? He had Soubi, who was still submissive to his former Sacrifice, and the Zeros. Ritsuka knew that he couldn't stand against Seimei. The only option left for him was to affect his brother through Soubi. To make Seimei give up on the Fighter. Soubi had to become useless for Seimei.

Next day Ritsuka went to school in a grim mood. He spent half the night surfing the Internet and found a great number of ways to make a man useless for fighting, but none of them suited him. Ritsuka didn't want to make Soubi cripple — or even worse — mentally disabled. All that he needed was to weaken him in some way. Somehow Ritsuka was sure that Seimei didn't need any weaklings.

Ritsuka already knew that the Fighter could quickly heal only the damage caused by spells. Real world wounds healed with regular speed. Ritsuka hated the idea of hurting Soubi, and he tried to excuse himself with the thought that the wound wouldn't be too severe. Soubi would recuperate very soon, and who if not he asked Ritsuka to save him from Seimei.

Ritsuka turned to a street half a way to school. He didn't want to waste the whole day being unable neither to study at his best as his thoughts constantly coming back to his scheme, nor to develop his plan thoroughly as he would be regularly distracted by his friends and his sensei's tasks. Furthermore, Soubi was going to meet him after the lessons as always, and Ritsuka wanted to decide on something by that time.

Ritsuka was roaming over the city gradually approaching the places where he had never been. At some moment he stopped, looked around and saw a lot of untidy wooden houses, everything looking so ancient and uninhabited that Ritsuka wondered how such a place could still exist. The boy went farther, curiously gazing around this time. Suddenly he noticed a small patch of land between two houses, where another building seemed to have been one day. Broken planks, blackened by fire and almost covered with wild herbs confirmed this assumption.

The two neighbouring houses had no fences. Ritsuka took a closer look

and spotted a key sticking out of the larger building's back extention door. He made sure that nobody was looking at him and walked closer.

He liked this place from the first sight. It was littered with flammable things and had a heavy iron door. The only escape from the locked room was a small window right under the ceiling, too narrow for an adult but easily penetrable for Ritsuka. With only a slight hesitation the boy desided to play a leading role in his plot as it was the only way to lure Soubi to this place. What also occurred to him was the injustice of putting Soubi in danger without taking any risk himself. If anything went wrong, Ritsuka was ready to take the consequences as a punishment for his evil design.

Ritsuka locked the door, tugged at the door knob just to be sure and surveyed the room for a secluded place to hide the key. His attention was attracted by the gaps between the floor boards. Ritsuka chose a gap wide enough and pushed the key through it. One could not tell that there was anything underneath the flooring.

Holding his breath, Ritsuka lit several matches and threw them on the pile of dry rags in front of him. The flame blazed up and within a minute the room was full of acrid smoke. Ritsuka coughed and covered the lower part of his face with his scarf. He didn't doubt that Soubi would be there in time. The Fighter always came to save Ritsuka.

'Oh, Dear!' exclaimed Soubi behind his back and rushed to the door. 'Ritsuka, what are you doing here?'

To no surprise, the door didn't budge.

'I don't have a key,' told Ritsuka coughing and Soubi turned deathly pale. He turned his eyes on the small window and after a moment he grabbed a shovel lying among the other litter and dashed to the window, holding it in his hands. Hastily he broke the glass and kicked out the old frame.

'Come here, Ritsuka! I'll give you a boost!' the Fighter turned to the boy, who ran to him immediately.

'Hold on, Soubi! I will bring you help,' sobbed Ritsuka as Soubi pushed him out of the burning room.

Trying to wipe his tears, but only succeeding in spreading them all over his cheeks, Ritsuka set off running away from the horrible place and only having passed several blocks he snatched some woman by her sleeve and started telling her incoherently that a man was burning somewhere not far away.

One of the only topics they discussed in the evening news was the calamity in the old storehouse. That was how Ritsuka knew that Soubi was alive. When the concerned Zeros came to Ritsuka's place, he drove them out, being unsure if he could look them in the eyes.

Starting the next day, Ritsuka regularly went to the hospital to ask about Soubi. Eventually they told him that the young man was transferred from ICU, which made it possible to visit him. Ritsuka ascended to the required floor, his legs trembling, his mouth dry and his heart beating somewhere in his throat.

Thick white curtains separated the bedsides from each other and the passageway. Several other patients had visitors too and Ritsuka was glad that he would not have to talk to Soubi near somebody else's curious ears.

Soubi was drawing. That was the first thing Ritsuka noticed about him.

'Hi, Ritsuka,' the Fighter raised his eyes from the sheet of paper and gave the boy a weak smile. 'Every day they told me that you came to see me again. Thank you, Ritsuka.'

The boy carefully sat on the edge of the bed.

'How are you?' asked he looking at the Fighter.

He was almost entirely covered with bandages. Only his head, right forearm and right hand were free of them. The left arm lay still on the blanket with a clear IV tube coming out of it.

'Getting better.' answered Soubi. 'It took them a while to pick the right painkiller for me, because my metabolism isn't normal. You know, what I mean. All in all, it was tough for me, but now it's almost okay. Kaidou brought me some paper and pencils.

Ritsuka felt a slight taste of jealousy when it turned out that he was not the only one to visit Soubi every day. Nevertheless, he ordered himself to stop having such thoughts and rebuked himself for having them. After all, he didn't even start thinking about some entertainment for Soubi.

'What are you drawing?' he asked looking at the piece of paper with some sloppy drawings.

'Just some rubbish,' Soubi showed a sad grin. 'Trying to give my arm a bit of exercise. But why are we talking about me, Ritsuka? I would rather hear about how you are doing these days. I still don't understand what have happened that day and it bothers me a lot.'

'You shouldn't worry about it.' Ritsuka told him firmly, making himself look in Soubi's eyes. 'Have some rest and get well.'

He rose and made a step to the head of the bed, then leaned forward and took Soubi into a gentle embrace, pressing his cheek to young man's head. Suddenly Soubi rubbed his face on Ritsuka's shoulder.

'Get well soon, Soubi. I will come later,' promised Ritsuka and kissed his forehead trying not to see how upset he was with Ritsuka leaving.

'I will, Ritsuka,' the Figher answered obediently and the boy left him.

Ritsuka walked down the corridor bearing an extreme feeling of guilt. He could not stop thinking about Soubi, frowned trying to draw with this unresponsive hand. Ritsuka knew that his deed broke the career of the young artist for several years, but the most terrible was the feeling that Soubi knew everything — although, he couldn't know anything — but for some obscure reason didn't put any blame on Ritsuka. It would be so better if he yelled on Ritsuka, told him go away and never come again. Ritsuka wished he could turn the clock back and never meet Soubi in his life.

When Ritsuka was leaving the hospital, a terrible thought occurred to him. Although being severely burnt, Soubi was going to be well soon, which meant that one more time Seimei would have a reason to take him back. Ritsuka felt that after all that had happened he most definitely couldn't let his brother do it, but he never would cause Soubi an harm.


End file.
